Tag: physio

RewviI was diagnosed with hypermobility at the age of 14 after multiple ankle injuries which culminated in the tearing of all the ligaments in one ankle. Not pretty right? So when the opportunity came around to review some products from CareCo the discount mobility experts I grabbed the chance to review their exercise band. Exercise bands like this were a core part of the many years of intense physio I had that focused on stabilising my ankles. Although I used them primarily for working with my ankles back then, exercise bands have a variety of uses for such a simple and inexpensive product.

First Impressions

I was really impressed with the neat little pouch that the band came in. It’s exactly as advertised on the site, however, anyone who’s ever done physio will know that you don’t get handed one so neatly packaged. In the past if I’ve been given one by a physiotherapist they have quite literally gone to a massive role that they have and cut a length off of it. So just having that little bit of extra effort made in the presentation and also having somewhere to put the band between exercises makes a big difference to me.

The band also comes with a 4 week resistance exercise plan booklet which is fantastic! The contents include the four weeks plan as well as exercise tips, dieting tips, mental fitness and further advice. I really appreciate that Careco have included mental fitness in the booklet and it has some great – and more importantly useful – advice in that respect. The diet page is brief and useful, not at all lecturing or guilt tripping.

In regards to the exercises each week tackles a separate area of the body; week one is upper body, week two is legs, week three is abdominal (chest and back) and week four is legs and triceps. You have the option of doing the plan as it is set out or using the booklet as a guide for what area of your body you need to focus on. For someone with a condition like mine, hypermobility/hypermobile EDS, it could be wrists one day and legs the next so I can quite easily flip through the guide and select an exercise that pertains for that area of the body. And there are several options to choose from as well.

Exercise Band

The band itself is pretty much a standard exercise band made of the same stretchy rubber material as all the bands I have previously encountered. Exercise bands can come in different strengths depending on the needs of the patient, and the CareCo band does not seem to come with any strength details. The specification segment of the product page is empty so no luck there. When testing the strength for myself I found that it had quite a high resistance strength so this may not be the best product for someone with weak joints or muscles.

What I did like about the exercise band is that it is numbered; each number pertains hand places for the exercises outlined in the guide book. This is a really useful feature that helps the users become accustomed to using the band and grow comfortable and confident in doing so. It also ensures that they use the band correctly reducing the risk of injuring by over stretching their muscles.

One last thing I wanted to check was whether the handy pouch was actually as useful as it seemed – and yes it is! Sometimes when you get an accompanying bag for an item, especially one that can be messy to put back in like a rubber exercise band, the bag isn’t as up to the job as it first appears. But as you can see I had absolutely no problem popping it back into the pouch. The band folded up easily and there was plenty of room left in the pouch for a time if I wasn’t able to fold it neatly (which is an issue if my fingers are sore) and I needed to just jam it in.

Conclusion

Overall it’s a good product for £11.99 (inc. VAT) and CareCo have put a lot of time and effort into the supporting material to ensure that users have the information they need to get started straight away. This makes the product a great all rounder for a variety of customers; whether you’re just starting out with fitness, have been recommended resistance exercises by a physiotherapist or you’re a fitness fanatic this exercise band has something for everyone.

My only reservation about the product is that it does not come with a resistance strength rating and I do feel that this is an oversight by CareCo. I gave it a few strong tugs to test the resistance for the purpose of this review, and the day after my wrist was still tender. It would be remiss of me not to mention that this band might be too strong for, or at least requires careful use for those with weak joints/muscles and who run the risk of hyper-extension or dislocation. It can still be used provided you are aware of the strength and take that into consideration when using this product for exercises.

Over to You

I hope you enjoyed this review and found it useful! Don’t forget to check out CareCo’s website they have a great range of mobility products at good prices compared to other places. They also offer a price comparison service so if you find it cheaper else where they will match it!

Have you used an exercise band before?

Are you familiar with CareCo?

What are some of your favourite mobility or health aids?

Let me know in the comments! If you have any questions about this product please do not hesitate to ask 🙂

Last time I got one of these done was June and then about a week later I had the flu. I’m now back on the blogging bandwagon and ready to get organised! Yeah, it’s half way through August already but I needed to do this, needed to put things into perspective and work out where I want to go this month. I’ve just started a new physio course called ‘Moving into Balance’ which essentially is an hour of theory/planning and then 30 mins of exercise. The aim is to help me find a baseline and start working to avoid boom and bust days, i.e. a good day followed by a bad day, and to stabilise my energy levels. One thing we’ve been asked to do is mindfully plan where we want our days to go, so I’m going to use this monthly post as a larger way to keep myself on track.

Personal

At the moment I’m taking it easy with some things, such as my diet, because flu majorly screwed a lot of stuff up. Last week was also hard due to appointments and other things going on, so I’ve had to recover a bit from that too. This week there’s just my physio so it’s get back on track time with planning, projects, and schedules. Hopefully by the start of September I’ll be back on track!

Dissertation

I am currently sitting at half way through my 20k word limit for my first rough draft. I think I have something like 6 months or something before the next exam board (as long as my continuation of studies is accepted), aka my new deadline, but I want it done before that. My physio’s throwing me through a loop at the moment, so taking my time and building my strength up to get back into writing again.

Projects

Blogging – Top of my list is to get back to blogging and schedule posts a month or more in advance! I already started by prepping my monthly goals posts and making up transmog sets for several weeks.

Directory Updates – Thanks to Photobucket’s ridiculous changes all my buttons for my directories have been messed up and it coincided of course with the flu. So I’m still playing catch up and several are a mess. Not to mention way overdue to a link check.

Gallery Updates – I officially finished the gallery move, now I just need to add my latest screenshots and do some admin stuff.

Bullet Journal – I want to use my bullet journal to track my energy levels, so I need to implement that and catch up with some other bits.

World of Warcraft

I don’t want to overdo things since there is only a few weeks left of August so just a few things;

Tomorrow is my first physio session with the Centre for Integrative Care, which is a homoeopathic hospital designed for people like me who have multiple health conditions; “Most patients referred to the Centre are experiencing chronic pain, chronic low energy, and/or chronic low mood or anxiety”.

I’ve had plenty of physio before, I know what to expect, and I know what goes on. The thing that is making me really nervous is that this is an NHS physio. Last time I went to see an NHS physio I ended up walking out of the appointment because the woman was extremely unprofessional. Instead of concentrating on what I needed, I got a speech about how she has hypermobility and is s perfect (stick thin) example of how you can be active and healthy with that condition. Yeah. My doctor was not impressed either. I ended up going private (shout out to Glasgow Physio centre who have an amazing, supporting and friendly team, highly recommend them!) and made more progress in one session than I did in 8 years of on-off again NHS physio.

The problem is that a normal NHS physio is there to get you back on your feet and out the door asap so they can move onto the next person. They are only able to concentrate on one part of your body at a time, not which part is hurting that week. Do you have any idea how amazing it is to go to your physio and say ‘my neck’s been bad this week, can we take a look at it?’ and actually get help there and then? I will hopefully go back to Glasgow physio centres, but right now I need to find out what is happening with my body which means being with the Centre for Integrative Care and being referred for their different services.

The biggest worry is walking in and being told it’s my weight, again. I already have had the ‘you need to be active’ spiel from the consultant – although he was very nice and understanding about it – and the fact that I’ve lost over 2 and 1/2 stone since November is in my favour. I’m working on it, just not actively. It’s like my dissertation work; I’ve been so ill and then I get something worse. Here’s just the last few months; ill in January with glands, February chest infection, March still the chest infection (I think, I can’t seem to shift it) and a stomach bug for 7 days. That’s just the last few months. The last few years have been as bad. I’ve gradually been going down hill until the last year and 1/2 my body has finally had enough. They believe I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which fits all the symptoms and is another chronic long term health condition I’ll have for the rest of my life. It’s depressing thinking of it like that, and I need my new physio to be able to work with me and how that makes me feel. I don’t expect them to be a therapist, just understanding and supportive while also pushing me.